


That One Time

by arianapeterson19



Series: Avengers Shorts [15]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Hostage Situations, Hurt Tony, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Protective Clint, Protective Steve, Protective Tony, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 08:32:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5410064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arianapeterson19/pseuds/arianapeterson19
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The room was a lot larger than Steve was expecting but Tony was talking too quickly for him to figure out why.</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>The one where Steve, Tony, and Clint are held hostage and Tony takes it upon himself to be the leader.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That One Time

The room was far larger than he remembered it being. That was the first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes. The second was that his chest felt heavy, his arms weak, and his head sore.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Cap," said Tony, swimming into Steve's line of vision. "Population is you and me right now."

"Everyone else is dead?" yelled Steve, sitting up in a way that made his head rush.

"Whoa, easy Princess," said Tony, steadying the captain with a hand at his shoulder. "I meant that we are the only two awake currently in this room. Clint's still out cold."

Steve looked around the room, visually confirming that Clint was indeed out cold a few feet away, before turning back to look up at Tony. But that couldn't be right. He never looked up at Tony. Tony was shorter than him by quite a bit so that even sitting, Steve could normally rest his chin on the top of Tony's head-if he was so inclined.

"What's wrong with me?" asked Steve, looking down at skinny limbs and frail hands.

"We were on a mission," said Tony, his voice almost sorry. "I'm sorry, I should have been quicker but we were captured. They used some gas that knocked you and Hawkeye out and turned you back to preserum you. But no worries, from what I could determine, it won't take, it's just a matter of time."

Steve looked down in shame at his own body. Tony continued to speak but Steve had quit listening because as much as he appreciated. Ow Tony didn't seem to mind his slight form, Steve certainly did.

The door to the cell swung open, revealing four -for lack of better word- thugs.

"Ah, seems you have company again," said one man who seemed to be the leader if the way the other three stood half a step behind him was any indication.

"Your powers of observation are noteworthy," replied Tony easily, though Steve noticed how the inventors eyes flitted around intelligently, taking in every detail at lightning speed.

"What do you want?" demanded Steve, his voice more firm than his muscles.

"Just to ask you a few questions, Captain," said the leader calmly.

"Hey, I thought it was my turn to chat with you," pouted Tony. "And here I was so looking forward to our talk."

As it always seemed to do in similar situations, it struck Steve at how he had underestimated Tony Stark the first time they had met. Steve had assumed he was a self centered billionaire who couldn't care less for others if he was paid. The Captain had assumed that in the face of danger, Tony would prove to be a coward and run, yet there the man stood, staring danger in the eye and purposefully pissing it off to keep the attention on him and not his compromised team mates.

"Plus, with all my classified knowledge, I am generally more loquacious than the majority of the population," smiled Tony, sealing his own fate.

It wasn't until they shut the door that Steve realized what Tony had done; Tony had taken his place to be tortured for information. At first, Steve wanted to be offended; he could handle himself, no serum and all. After a moment though, he realized that Tony would have done it anyway. Tony was brilliant but as the entire team had learned, the man had the self preservation instincts of a mayfly.

"What the hell did we get into this time?" groaned Clint, blinking his eyes open and holding his head.

"How are you feeling?" asked Steve, moving over to crouch by the archer.

"Better than you look," said Clint, sitting up. "What happened to you?"

Steve grimaced. "The gas reverted my body back to its pre serum form. Tony said it'll wear off."

"I see why you wanted the change," said Clint. For all outside appearances, it looked like Clint stretched and cracked his neck, however, Steve knew the assassin was assessing their surroundings and taking a mental inventory of their collective well being. "Where is the idiot anyone?"

"They took him for questioning about 10 minutes ago."

Clint grunted in acknowledgement. It wasn't an ideal situation but if he was going to put his money on any of the three of them to withstand torture, he would place it on Tony every time. For all that the billionaire was a civilian pain in the ass, he was remarkably resilient and his genius allowed him to create convincing lies. The odds were also in Tony's favor for their captors needing him to build something, so they would be careful not to kill him.

The door opened and Tony's limp body was tossed in before the door was slammed shut again with enough force to cause dust to fall off the walls.

"I'm starting to think they don't like me," mumbled Tony as Clint and Steve helped him into a sitting position.

He looked a mess as best, his nice suit jacket gone, shirt soaked and clinging to his torso, pants ripped, skin bruised and bloodied, and his left leg was sitting as an unnatural angle.

"You should've let them take me, Tony," said Steve softly, looking over a particularly nasty gash.

"Come on, with your asthma, you never would have had a hope with the water boarding," replied Tony with a half smirk. "Besides, they need to keep me alive. Right now, you're a lot easier to kill in your current condition. They'd have no fun, this way they have to try to kill you when you're all big again. Much more of a challenge. Whoa! What the hell, Robin Hood?"

Clint didn't even look up from his inspection of Tony's leg.

"You've managed to get fucked up pretty badly," stated Clint. "You're of no use with that leg."

"Tut, tut," clucked Tony, shaking his head with a sly smile that normally meant trouble for one of more parties. "Keep up those rude comments and I won't be sharing this set of keys I lifted off the guards with you. Nor will I let you have this fully loaded hand gun."

"You son of a bitch," said Clint, snatching the gun with a grin.

Steve grabbed the keys and stood. The sudden movement made his vision black for a moment, pain shooting through his limbs. When he opened his eyes, it took him a moment to understand why the other two were staring at him.

"Looks like someone put their big boy pants back on," said Tony.

Indeed, when Steve looked down he could tell he was back to his normal height. A large grin spread across his face as he felt more in control of the situation.

"Where's the exit?" asked Steve in his best Captain America voice.

"Out the door, turn left, down the hall 42 regular people paces, turn right, three yards down and there it is. Unguarded except for one guy but he's allergic to bullets in the head, I think."

"It's almost too easy," said Clint, helping Tony to his feet, taking the mans weight.

"Yes well, they underestimate Steve. Serum or not, he's a force to be reconnect with. Also, they were stupid enough to keep us together, of course they put us by the exit. I bet it also helps that this isn't their main exit, so to them it's the back of the bus."

"I'll take him, you take point, Hawkeye," said Steve, unlocking the door before taking Tony from Clint after receiving a nod from the archer.

Whatever would happen after the door opened, Steve knew he would never forget how it felt to be small again, to need to be protected as much as he hated it, and how Tony and Clint had stepped up to do so, neither making a show of it nor treating him like an invalid as so many before had. No matter what, the three of them had entered a new level of trust born from understanding that some weaknesses didn't need to be talked about to acknowledge them.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking of doing Tony/Natasha next.


End file.
